however, that monarch invaded the southern kingdom,
which had passed into the hands of a king named Merodach-iddin-akhi,
probably a son of Nebuchadnezzar. After two years of fighting, in which
he took Eurri-Galzu (Akkerkuf), the two Sipparas, Opis, and even
Babylon itself, Tiglath-Pileser retired, satisfied apparently with his
victories; but the Babylonian monarch was neither subdued nor daunted.
Hanging on the rear of the retreating force, he harassed it by cutting
off its baggage, and in this way he became possessed of certain Assyrian
idols, which he carried away as trophies to Babylon. War
continued between the two countries during the ensuing reigns of
Merodach-shapik-ziri in Babylon and Asshur-bil-kala in Assyria, but with
no important successes, so far as appears, on either side.

The century during which these wars took place between Assyria and
Babylonia, which corresponds with the period of the later Judges in
Israel, is followed by an obscure interval, during which but little is
known of either country. Assyria seems to have been at this time in
a state of great depression. Babylonia, it may be suspected, was
flourishing; but as our knowledge of its condition comes to us almost
entirely through the records of the sister country, which here fail
us, we can only obtain a dim and indistinct vision of the greatness now
achieved by the southern kingdom. A notice of Asshur-izir-pal's seems
to imply that Babylon, during the period in question, enlarged her
territories at the expense of Assyria, and another in Macrobius, makes
it probable that she held communications with Egypt. Perhaps these two
powers, fearing the growing strength of Assyria, united against her,
and so checked for a while that development of her resources which they
justly dreaded.

However, after two centuries of comparative depression, Assyria once
more started forward, and Babylonia was among the first of her neighbors
whom she proceeded to chastise and despoil. About the year B.C. 880
Asshur-izir-pal led an expedition to the south-east and recovered the
territory which, had been occupied by the Babylonians during the period
of weakness. Thirty years later, his son, the Black-Obelisk king, made
the power of Assyria still more sensibly felt. Taking advantage of
the circumstance that a civil war was raging in Babylonia between the
legitimate monarch Merodach-sum-adin, and his young brother, he marched
into the country, took a number of the towns